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Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig school locked down after threat

BENA -- Leaders at the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig school went into lockdown Thursday morning after a student threatened other students there.

School staff heard of the threat at 8:08 a.m., Superintendent Mary Trapp told the Pioneer, and went into a “code red” lockdown, which indicates a threat to students and staff in the building and meant no one was allowed to enter or exit the school. School leaders gave the all-clear at 8:39 a.m. after they and a Leech Lake Tribal Police officer on staff followed up on the report, and the school went into a more relaxed “code yellow” lockdown, which meant students could use hallways and go to classes on their own.

“Although the incident is still currently being investigated, Law Enforcement determined there was no current threat and students were allowed to return to class,” the Leech Lake Tribal Police Department wrote on its Facebook page.

Trapp said the threat occurred on school property, but the student who allegedly made the threat was not in school Thursday. Trapp declined to say whether the student was removed from school. Classes there begin by 8:30 a.m. -- about 20 minutes before the alleged threat was reported.

Trapp anticipated the lockdown would continue until classes dismissed at 3:15 p.m. She said after-school activities were expected to continue as scheduled.

Also on Thursday, a school on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in north-central North Dakota sent its students home after threats of violence there triggered a lockdown.

And on Wednesday, TrekNorth Junior and Senior High School in Bemidji went into a similar lockdown after staff learned of a threat there that was ultimately deemed not credible. A teen was arrested in Orono, Minn., on Wednesday after multiple threats were made on social media. All this activity comes in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people.

He is a Minneapolis native and a 2009 graduate of St. John's University. Before moving to Bemidji, Bowen covered education, local politics, crime, and everything in between for the Perham Focus in Perham, Minnesota, and Sun Newspapers in suburban Minneapolis.